Can Can Brasserie

I had to spend a night in Richmond, or really a sketchy motel just outside of Richmond, before the MPRE. Three of my other friends were taking the MPRE in Richmond as well, so we made reservations at the Can Can Brasserie. Here's their website: http://www.cancanbrasserie.com/cc_content.htm. The brasserie is a French bistro style restaurant, which certainly has the look of a traditional Parisian location...if it were only 1/4th of its current size. Its an extremely large restaurant, and was crowded and a little loud. So, maybe this isn't where you go for a romantic pre-MPRE dinner. But it was a fun place to go for a group of friends playing catch up.

I started with escargot. I thought the portion was huge, and was well prepared. Plenty of bang for your buck. I prefer my escargot to be extremely garlicky, so a bit more garlic would have been fine with me. But the dish was buttery, and the meat was prepared properly (read: not chewy). And once I finished dipping the meat in the butter and garlic sauce, I used it on a couple of pieces of bread, because it was just too delicious to waste!

For my entree I ordered the sweetbreads. First off, I lovelovelove sweetbreads. Probably one of my all time favorite dishes. And the sweetbreads at the Brasserie were perfection. Some of the best I've had. The portion, again, was very large. I'd almost say it was overwhelming, because sweetbreads are so rich. But if you are a fan of sweetbreads, this place does them extremely well. The chef here is a fan of purees, so one of my sides was pureed sweet potatoes. Good, not amazing. But the sweetbreads were wonderful, so it didn't really matter what else was on my plate.

Finally, for dessert I split the goat cheese cake with black, white, and pink peppercorn ice cream, topped with a pear compote and pear caramel sauce. I was extremely underwhelmed by the goat cheese cake. Probably because I made the mistake of thinking it was a cheesecake made with some goat cheese. And instead it had a dry crumbly cake texture. But the ice cream was a wonderful surprise! It was spicy, and had both the savory and sweet sensation. I was also pleased to find that I really enjoyed the pear compote. It was just the right balance of spices, and was not overly sweet, which is often my problem with fruit compotes.

Overall, this is great restaurant if you're looking for a fun adventurous night out! And you're in Richmond...

So, the breakdown, on a scale from 1 to 5:

Ambiance: 4
Service: 3
Entrees: 4
Desserts: 3
Overall: 4